New data released by New York City Public Schools Tuesday revealed a slight increase during the past year in the suspension rates among students in the city’s foster care system and those experiencing homelessness.
It’s the first time the city has released suspension data that includes separate numbers of foster youth.
The annual reports follow passage of a 2023 law sponsored by Brooklyn City Council Member Rita Joseph that requires city officials to better track these students’ graduation outcomes, disability evaluations and transportation needs.
Suspensions of all students during the 2024-25 school year declined, according to the most recent city stats. But for Black students, those with disabilities and homeless and foster youth, they have gone up in the past year.
New York City public schools issued long-term suspensions to students in foster care
nearly six times more often than other students. During the 2024-25 school year, the city issued roughly 115 suspensions for every 1,000 students in foster care, compared with 106 students the prior year, according to an analysis from the nonprofit Advocates for Children of New York.
Gaps in children’s education can lead to long-term consequences for a population facing numerous challenges in school. Just one in four students in foster care graduated on time in New York City in 2019, compared to three-fourths of their peers.
“We remain deeply concerned that students in foster care continue to be suspended at a disproportionate rate,” Erika Palmer, supervising attorney at the nonprofit Advocates for Children of New York, said in a statement. She called on the administration of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to “build upon the innovative work” being done in the city office serving students in out-of-home placements.
The Office of Foster Care was launched in 2023 by the city’s Department of Education to better the educational outcomes of these students by improving communication between schools, social workers and birth parents, and fast-tracking bus routes for students who are moved to different schools and homes without much notice. Educators who have worked with the office also said that its foster care coordinators have served as “a strategic inside connection” during suspension hearings for students in foster care.
Palmer, who along with Councilmember Joseph was instrumental in advocating for the specialized foster care office, implored the new mayoral team to focus on restorative justice practices over suspensions, and expand “mandatory training for school-based clinicians and administrators on the unique needs of students in foster care, as well as effective strategies to support them in the classroom.”
